The last thing I need to do, to finish this deep dive into understanding wet shaving, is to learn how to strop a razor blade. In particular, how to strop a stainless-steel razor blade. Correctly. So that it actually sharpens the blade.
I have no practical reason to do this. Now that I understand the importance of using shaving cream instead of soap, I find that my razor blades last a long time. Currently, I’m on shave #8 on a single Personna stainless steel blade, shaving with Barbasol. I’m just starting to see the first bit of blade wear
So the blades won’t last forever. But at that rate, I probably already own a more-than-lifetime supply of razor blades. And so, I have no practical need to try to extend the life of a blade.
Instead, this is more a question of separating fact from fiction. As with the rest of wet-shaving lore, when I look at ways to re-sharpen a razor blade, I see a lot of stuff that just looks nuts. And I see a lot of clever antique devices that look downright interesting. What’s missing is anybody taking the time actually to test these methods and determine whether or not they do, in fact, work.
So that’s the purpose of this next set of exercises. History. Fact vs. fiction. Historical methods. Ending with a practical method for stropping a stainless steel razor blade.
Just to jump ahead, I think I’ve already figured out what that’s likely to be. It’s like to be honing the blade using polishing compound on the inside surface of a Pyrex container. But it’s going to take me a while to explain how I got to that conclusion.
A history of razor blade stropping devices
Part 1: Sears and Roebuck Catalog.
Source and credit: All illustrations in this section are from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogs. All early years are from an on-line collection maintained by the University of Illinois, which you can access by starting at this link: https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1910-1919. Catalogs from later years are via https://christmas.musetechnical.com/
The decade of the 1930s was the heyday of stropping razor blades to re-sharpen them. Sears offered multiple models of stropping device, including electric stroppers. The razor blade market still appeared to be dominated by cheap (and easily stropped) carbon-steel blades, and Sears flatly stated: “Stroppers make razor blades last longer”.
But by the time you get to WWII, electric razors were the in thing, Sears was pushing stainless steel blades, and stroppers had all-but-disappeared from the catalog. One self-stropping razor set was all that was left of the notion to strop blades to extend their life. The more conservative Montgomery Ward still offered a stropper, but it was the same model that had been invented in the 1920s.
Of particular note: In 1940, Sears told you that you didn’t need to dry off stainless steel blades. That’s 80 years ago. And people will still incorrectly tell you that you need to dry off your razor blade after each use (Post #1686). Such is the power of folklore.
Edit: Nope, see Post #1699. If you live in an area with hard water, you do, in fact, need to dry off your razor blades. The issue isn’t rust/corrosion (for stainless-steel blades), it’s that water spots (mineral deposits) coat the razor edge and dull it. See that post for details.
As of the 1955 Sears catalog, there’s zero mention of stropping, but Sears is still offering a mix of carbon-steel and stainless-steel blades. By 1965, razors had disappeared entirely from the Sears catalog, and Sears only offered stainless steel blades, no carbon-steel blades. By 1975, “razor” doesn’t even appear in the index, and the only shaving options shown are electric shavers.
Decade-by-decade detail follows.
Sears & Roebuck, 1918
As I found out courtesy of the 1918 Sears and Roebuck catalog, razor blade stropping was an expected part of shaving with a safety razor at that time. Sears sold a clever device consisting of leather rollers, a blade holder, and a crank.
Sears & Roebuck, 1924
Not much had changed by the 1924 Sears catalog. That same stropping device (now branded Kanner’s) was sold, along with an even-more-complex “Twinplex” stropper (above). There were also several razors marked as “self-stropping”, which appears to mean that you could attach a leather cylinder to the razor itself, which would then roll across your skin and strop the back of the blade as you shaved.
Not shown, the catalog offered a broad array of shaving soaps, largely in stick form.
Sears and Roebuck, 1936
By the time you get to the 1936 Sears & Roebuck, the stropping market had expanded, and Sears boldly claimed that “Stroppers make razor blades last longer”. If it says it in the Sears and Roebuck, it’s so.
I see two notable changes beyond the proliferation of products. First, there’s an electric stropper on the market. But Sears is also offering honing stones specifically designed for honing razor blades. Note the “Duplex Home”, with a curved side made specifically for honing razor blades. That comes up again in the next section on stropping artifacts.
Up to this point, all razor blade stroppers had been variations on a standard leather strop. They rolled the strop up into a cylinder. But it was still a piece of stout leather, rubbed at the correct angle against the underside of the blade. But now we also have a curved honing stone specifically for honing razor blades.
The other notable change was the explosion in the offerings of razor blades, and the plummeting price of blades. Note that Sears now offered blades in bulk at less than 1 cent per blade. So this must have been the generation when safety razors really took off. I also note the many blade manufacturers offered chromium steel blades, which, from the consumers’ point of view, would have been indistinguishable from stainless steel.
Not shown, this catalog offered many different shaving creams. That was a change from 1924, when only shaving soaps were listed.
Sears and Roebuck, 1940.
First, not shown, electric shavers were clearly the “in” thing. Sears devoted almost an entire page to them.
Second, Sears was offering stainless steel blades as a premium product. Normal carbon-steel blades were still less than a penny each. Their stainless steel blades, advertised as long-lasting, were 6 cents each.
Of special note, way back in 1940, we already knew that there was no need to dry off a stainless steel razor blade. Sears explicitly says that with stainless steel blades, there is “No need to wipe off”. And yet, here we are, 80 years later, and every wet shaving site you come to still tells you how important it is to dry off your blade after use. (See edit above — you need to dry them in areas with hard water.)
At this point, Sears is no longer offering a stropper, and offers just one “self-stropping” razor set.
Montgomery Ward, 1942
Here, I found it notable that Wards also offered stainless steel blades. No ambiguity, with a promise that they’d never rust. The price of bargain blades had fallen to less than a penny a blade. As with Sears, the stainless blades were a premium product, costing 5 cents each.
Wards continued to offer the “Twinplex” stropper that had first appeared in the 1920s.
Sears & Roebuck, 1955
By this time, all the emphasis is on electric shavers. There’s one small section for safety razors. No mention of any type of stropping device anywhere. Sears continues to offer both cheap carbon-steel blades and stainless steel blades.
Sears, 1965.
By the time you get to 1965, the only shavers offered by Sears are electric. This year they featured many models of cordless electric shavers. The offered no razors. Certainly no strops. And all the razor blades on offer were stainless steel. Carbon steel blades had disappeared from the Sears catalog.
Sears, 1975
At this point, the word “razor” no longer appears in the index of the catalog. You have to look for “shavers”. And, sure enough, all they sell now is electric shavers. The only vestigial nod to wet shaving is the hot shaving cream gizmo pictured above.
Part II: I bought it on Ebay. Other vintage razor-blade stropping devices.
Source and credit: All illustrations in this section are from Ebay. I will try to be sure to give a link to each individual listing that I use.
If you look on Ebay you can find examples of most of the stropping machines and self-stropping razors show in the Sears catalogs. These are incredibly helpful for figuring out how those devices work, because the Ebay listings typically show multiple photographs from different angles.
By and large, the stropping devices shown in the Sears & Roebuck were leather cylinders, turned in some fashion, with some way to hold the blade in the proper position against the leather. Fundamentally, they were no different from a traditional leather strop used with straight razors. Merely made smaller and adapted to the form of the safety razor blade.
Instead, in this section I’m going to concentrate on razor-blade stropping devices other than the box-with-leather-roller types shown in the Sears and Wards catalogs.
Finally, let me be clear that I’m only interested in tools that could be used to hone or strop safety razor blades. In particular, I need to avoid tools and devices designed for straight razors.
At the end of the day, a curved sharpening stone or even just a curved piece of hard glass appears to be the most common non-leather tool used to re-sharpen razor blades. For those where instructions were evident, all of them said to use a light touch. I have to assume that the curve of the stone or glass then aligns with the angle of the razor edge, and that the stone or glass itself is hard enough to strop or polish the razor edge.
Criss-Cross leather disk strop. Click here for Ebay listing.
This is a leather disk, turned by a crank, with a blade holder sitting above the disk (in the upper right). Put the blade in the holder, let it down onto the leather disk, and crank to strop the back of the blade. Basically, this is just another variation on a traditional leather strop, fit to the form factor of a safety razor blade.
Curved sharpening stones
These are all sharpening stones with a curve cut into them. You lay the blade in the curve, so that both edges touch the stone, and lightly rub it in a circular fashion.
Safety razor hone. Click here for Ebay listing.
Safety razor hone 2. Click for Ebay listing
Safety Razor hone 3. Click here for Ebay listing
Curved glass strops/hones
I had never heard of using glass as a strop or hone, but there are several variations of that represented on Ebay and elsewhere. Based on one set of instructions, I think these work just like the curved stones. You lay your blade in the curve, edges touching the glass, press down, and just kind of move it around in a circles over the glass.
Curved glass razor hone 1. Click here for Ebay listing.
Glass razor hone 2. Click here for Ebay listing
Glass razor hone 3. Click for ebay listing.
Velvet glass sharpener. Click here for Ebay listing.
Pretty sure this one works the same way as the others, you just use the inside of the glass as the curved edge of the glass.
Other/weirder stuff
Magnetic razor-blade sharpener. Click for Ebay listing.
Well, that’s just hilarious. I came across a modern version of this the other day. The claim here is that by something-something-something magnetic fields something-something-something, and presto, the blade is resharpened. It’s Science! I assumed the modern one was a scam, and I’d bet that this is merely a 60-year-old scam.
Bakelite razor sharpener. Click here for Ebay listing.
I’ve seen several models like this, mostly from Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union. All of them have this clamshell design, with what I assume is some type of sharpening media, but I have no clue how this works.
Summary: Some clear direction for stropping stainless steel blades.
I’m pretty sure that most common glass is not quite hard enough to be used to sharpen stainless. Glass comes in around 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale. Stainless, if you can put it on that scale, varies, but goes up to at least 7, depending on who;s counting.
That said, nothing would stop me from putting a little polishing or fine grinding compound on a piece of curved glass, and having at it with a stainless steel blade.
Finally, borosilicate glass (Pyrex) comes in around a 7.5 on Mohs. So, arguably, the 21st century analog of resharpening carbon-steel blades using soda lime glass would be to resharpen stainless-steel blades using borosilicate glass.
So I think that’s the direction I’m going to take.
